This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Variation in RNA, protein, and metabolite levels among individuals is thought to be an important source of physiological and phenotypic differences within and between species. However, relatively little is known about the magnitude and genetic basis of these high-dimensional molecular phenotypes. Yeast provide an ideal model system for the genetic dissection of complex and quantitative traits, and whole-genome sequences have recently been obtained for 37 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. The goal of this project is to develop technologies to quantitatively measure RNA, protein, metabolite, and morphological phenotypes in these 37 strains. This data set provides an important, novel, and powerful opportunity to synergistically combine comparative functional genomics data with comparative sequence analyses to delineate the genetic architecture of complex and quantitative phenotypes in yeast. Furthermore, the whole genome sequence data will be leveraged to correlate patterns of phenotypic diversity with genetic variation. These experiments will result in an important large-scale data set of thousands of quantitative traits collected in a carefully designed randomized study, which will provide novel insights into the magnitude and patterns of natural variation of molecular and morphological phenotypes, as well as preliminary insights into their genetic basis.